Ali Carter and Marco Fu both shone in Berlin 12 months ago as they made it through to the final, but there will be no repeat in 2014, as they lost out today to Dechawat Poomjaeng and Paul Davison respectively.

In Ali’s case, the defending champion led 2-0 and 4-2 in the early stages of the match, but it was Poomjaeng who won the last three frames on the spin to claim one of his best wins since his (in)famous run at the World Championship last year. Fu meanwhile struggled against Paul Davison, his highest break of 43 enough to give him just two frames, but take nothing away from ‘Snowy’ who will now progress to a last 32 encounter with Rod Lawler.

Another surprise exit was that of Stuart Bingham, who lost out 5-3 to Leeds’ Peter Lines in today’s afternoon session. While disappointing for Stuart, the win could prove to be a crucial one for Peter, as he battles to retain his main tour place at the end of the season via the running money list linked above.

Elsewhere, the other member of the top 16 to lose out tonight was Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen, who came unstuck against the ever-improving Scot Anthony McGill this evening. Having seen his opponent hit back to draw level at 2-2 at the mid-session interval, it made it all the more impressive that Anthony was able to add three of the next four frames, finishing off with a run of 112 to move into the last 32.

Anthony was soon to be joined by friend and countryman Alan McManus, who saw off 2002 world champion Peter Ebdon 5-2, in a match-up that had a real 90’s throwback feel to it on paper.

There was to be another impressive win for Sheffield based youngster Joel Walker, whose rapid improvement in recent month continued with a 5-4 win against Aditya Mehta, while Jack Lisowski wasted little time in recording a 5-0 whitewash against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh this evening.

At the other end of the scale, it was to prove a disappointing day for the legends, as Steve Davis and Jimmy White lost out to Shoot Out champion Dominic Dale and Shanghai Masters finalist Xiao Guodong respectively. Of course, both Steve and Jimmy are currently in the thick of a fight to retain their main tour places beyond the end of the current season, which we will keep an eye on as the next few weeks progress.

As for the biggest names of all, there were comfortable victories for Neil Robertson, Mark Selby and Ding Junhui, while both John Higgins and 2011 German Masters champion Mark Williams were also able to progress to the last 32.

In Robertson’s case, he was also able to record a remarkable 78th century break of the season in his match against Liu Chuang, as he looks to extend his already record tally to over 100 by the end of the campaign.

The action continues tomorrow, with Judd Trump set to be the televised match during the morning session…